GGW Picture This Photo Contest: March 2010

With so many of us wondering if winter will ever end, Saxon Holt, our judge for this month and a GGW Regular Contributor, has offered up a subject that will inspire many to retrieve photos taken over the past years. Or, if you’re lucky enough to live in a climate where early spring blooms are the norm, get out those cameras and start shooting. The American Meadow Garden, Saxon’s latest book collaboration, this time with John Greenlee, is a feast for the eyes. Check it out!

Saxon has chosen the theme Awakening for this month’s contest. Here is what he is looking for in the winning photos.

“Aren’t we all ready to look for spring awakening ?

In this month’s Picture This, we need to cheer the blogosphere with our pictures of spring. So go find anything that will help turn our thoughts away from this winter’s record snow, freezing temps, and the California floods.

Even young seedlings sprouting in our basements around the country give signs of awakening. What can be more hopeful than a tray of sprouts being readied for spring ?

Officially it is still winter but depending on where you live, you should be able to find any number of garden signs of spring. In garden literature we are told of winter flowering trees and shrubs, but really, they are the earliest signs of spring. The filberts, witchhazels, and quince are now gone in California but for many of you they may be just beginning. Show me what is happening in your area.

This photo of our California native Hounds Tongue bursting from the ground was taken February 8 after weeks of glorious rain so my woods are greening up. This same day saw 30 inches of snow in Washington DC.

It is a big country spanning many zones and I am excited at the prospect of a diverse set of photos. I will be looking for a broad range of entries and will give special consideration to unusual and creative interpretation of the awakening theme.

This mushroom pushed its way up and awakened here in February. Soaking rains are a winter event for California (we hope) and mushrooms a sure sign of the earth coming to life.

The wild Lomatiums show their fresh leaves, as if awakening from a long sleep, stretching their limbs, eager to start a new season.

So too the Elderberry, leaves emerging from their long curling scales, show freshest embryonic signs of a shrub awakening.

When looking for your own garden shots, try to compose so that the backgrounds are simple and do not conflict with the main subject. If you can get a bit of garden context without confusing the main focal area, so much the better, but be sure to have critically sharp focus on your main subject. Use your whole frame, cropping any area that does not add to the composition.

Your entries do not have to be taken in your own garden or even in this year. Find something that speaks to you about the earliest yearning for spring and share it with us here.”

RULES FOR ENTERING THE CONTEST

1. You must have an active blog in order to participate. We love that you send us a link to the blog post that includes your photo. To be eligible for judging, you also need to send us a direct link to the image.

PLEASE NOTE: if you send us a link to your post with a notation telling us where the photo is within the post, your entry will not be admitted into the contest.

2. Your photo must be able to be copied from your site. That makes it possible for us to collect all the entries in one place for easier judging.

3. Entered photos should be approximately 500 pixels on the long side. (If you’re using Microsoft Office Picture Manager to resize your images, there is a pre-set resize option for “Web – Large” which comes in at 640 x 480. That would work just fine.)

4. The deadline for entries is 11:59 pm Eastern time on Sunday, March 21, 2010.

For those of you who haven’t yet thrown your hat into the ring, go for it this month! The photos that have been compiled over the past 11 months since we started Picture This have become an informal gallery of gardening subjects (they just happen to be inspiraitonal.) If you haven’t yet done so, check them out at

A graduate of the University of Chicago with Honors in Psychology, she is also a gardening and creativity expert, coach, inspirational speaker, CBS radio news gardening correspondent, and Huffington Post Contributor.

Learn more about Fran and get free resources that will help you improve your life at www.fransorin.com.

Nothing prettier or more inspiring than Spring – love the theme! A rare once-in-a-decade Austin, Texas snow didn’t stop my Hellebore from blooming and surviving melting snow dew drops. True power of spring will in the garden!

A link to a pretty geranium in my flower bed that had bloomed and showed us all her beauty! Blog entry is a story about my trials with prior gardening (I’m still learning how to develop my green thumb). This year I’m determined to have some blooms!

Wishing everyone the best of luck with this. Saxon, I’m really glad you’re the judge, because I’ve looked at many of the entries, and…wow. They make my heart happy. But not as much as spring knocking at our door does.

Well this was a tough one for me. I almost used an old photo of a fern frond, but I snagged a new photo of an emerging lupine that I like quite a bit. But then I went back and forth between it and a shot of a crocus. Oh how I wish we could enter 2 photos. But the lupine won out in the end. Thanks for giving me an excuse to take new photos!

California native golden prettyface (Triteleia ixioides) pushing its first flower up through hideously cracked clay soil that has just dried out for the first time since last fall; the area was sticky mud all winter long.